Releasing the Pressure + My Destructive Perfectionism

“Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” ~Astrid Alauda

Everything I do must be perfect. At least, this is what I tell myself every day.

I must get a better time on my run.

I must figure out how to code my website so it looks beautiful.

I must be super professional all of the time.

I must make a balanced meal that gives me the nutrients I need.

I must have no flaws.

I must be…perfect.

But being perfect doesn’t exist. That’s mainly because what I have built up in my mind as perfect doesn’t exist. So I end up stressing out and putting extreme amounts of pressure on myself to do everything perfectly. That never ends well.

This kind of pressure eats away at us.

Pressure to stay later at work.

Pressure to take on projects we don’t have time for.

Pressure to take care of family members because we think we should.

Pressure to get married.

Pressure to have children.

Pressure to eat healthier.

Pressure to do to everything right.

Pressure to make sure everyone else is happy.

The pressure comes from all directions – family, friends, coworkers, significant others, and even strangers. We can’t control those people, but we can control the main source of pressure – ourselves.

We allow the pressure get to us. We allow it to eat away at our cores until we have nothing left. We start to doubt ourselves.

We can do better than that.

Your body is telling you to lift some of the pressure. It can’t handle it anymore. And you don’t want to handle it anymore.

Pick one thing right now in your life that you can let go of. For example, I choose destructive perfectionism.

Think of all the pressure surrounding that one thing. Write it down. Really let yourself think about it because chances are high that you try to ignore it most of the time. Think about how it would feel to not have that in your life right now.

It feels better already.

Make a choice, right now, to do something about it. Stop letting it eat away at you. Get it under control.

Consider these options:

1) Completely let it go and rid it from your life

2) Figure out a way to delegate it to someone else

3) Think of a way to make it better, add an element that you enjoy

Release the pressure.

Every time your thing creeps up on you, acknowledge it, then let it go.

My perfectionistic tendencies will never go away, but I can control them. I can control how I feel about them and what I do about them. I choose to let them go.

And so can you.

What are you choosing to let go of or change for the better? Share your pressure in the comments. Let’s support each other.